1999 Jean Vesselle Bouzy Brut Prestige Grand Cru

Champagne Jean Vesselle is based in Bouzy. In the parlance of the region, the estate is a “recolant manipulant,”meaning that it controls every stage of the winemaking, from growing its own estate grapes to producing and selling its Champagnes. Though the estate was founded more than 300 years ago, it takes its current name from Jean Vesselle, who ran the estate during the last half of the 20th century. Today it is run by his daughter Delphine Vesselle, who is also the winemaker. The estate owns 30 acres, much of it in the Grand Cru region of Bouzy. Jean Vesselle produces about 120,000 bottles annually and makes a full range of Champagnes from Brut Reserve to Rose and Demi-Sec.

Champagne is a small, beautiful wine growing region northeast of Paris whose famous name is misused a million times a day. As wine enthusiasts and all French people are well aware, only sparkling wines produced in Champagne from grapes grown in Champagne can be called Champagne. Sparkling wines produced anywhere else, including in other parts of France, must be called something besides Champagne. Champagne producers are justifiably protective of their wines and the prestige associated with true Champagne. Though the region was growing grapes and making wines in ancient times, it began specializing in sparkling wine in the 17th century, when a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon formulated a set guidelines to improve the quality of the local sparkling wines. Despite legends to the contrary, Dom Pérignon did not “invent” sparkling wine, but his rules about aggressive pruning, small yields and multiple pressings of the grapes were widely adopted, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Champagne had become the wine of choice in fashionable courts and palaces throughout Europe. Today there are 75,000 acres of vineyards in Champagne growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne’s official appellation system classifies villages as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though there are also many excellent Champagnes that simply carry the regional appellation. Along with well-known international Champagne houses there are numerous so-called “producer Champagnes,” meaning wines made by families who, usually for several or more generations, have worked their own vineyards and produced Champagne only from their own grapes.